Giuliani campaigns in Valley

SACRAMENTO - GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani applauded the defeat of the immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate during a campaign stop downtown Thursday.

Hank Shaw

SACRAMENTO - GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani applauded the defeat of the immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate during a campaign stop downtown Thursday.

"It was a typical Washington mess in every respect," said the former New York City mayor, who was campaigning at a coffee shop in between fundraisers. "It could've made things worse."

Giuliani says that as president, he would build a fence across the nation's Southern border and create a "tamper-proof" identification card all foreign workers or students would be required to hold; their information then would be held in as Giuliani put it, "a single nationwide database of foreigners."

Giuliani was in town to raise money. He began the day in Fresno; he has held three fundraisers there this year. Giuliani's Sacramento event was at the Hyatt hotel, and he was scheduled for three more buck-raking events in California before he leaves the state this evening.

All of this fundraising is set against the end of a federal campaign finance reporting period; campaigns want to raise as much money as possible when the reports become public July 15 because money is especially important to a campaign this year. California and 20 other states will hold their presidential primaries Feb. 5. This forces the candidates to run a national campaign, which does not come cheap.

A Record analysis of candidates' campaign finance reports shows that Giuliani had collected $145,350 from Central Valley residents through April 15. Campaign officials did not say how much they expected to raise this week.

Giuliani's decision to spend this week raising cash has angered many Latinos because he and the other Republican presidential candidates had been expected to attend the national conference of Latino elected officials today.